What is your feeling about for-profit universities targeting the homeless?
l . There is nothing wrong with this practice. The homeless should be given equal opportunity to attend a university.
2. This practice should be stopped because it drives up our federal expenses. The taxpayer ultimately pays these bills because many of these individuals default on their loans.
3. This practice should be stopped because many of these individuals are not prepared or academically qualified to attend a university.
4. Invent other options.
Benson Rollins wants a college degree. The unemployed high school dropout who attends Alcoholics Anonymous and has been homeless for 10 months is being courted by the University of Phoenix. Two of its recruiters got themselves invited to a Cleveland shelter last October and pitched the advantages of going to the country's largest for-profit college to 70 destitute men.
Their visit spurred the 23-year-old Rollins to fill out an online form expressing interest. Phoenix salespeople then barraged him with phone calls and e-mails, urging a tour of its Cleveland campus. "If higher education is important to you for professional growth, and to achieve your academic goals, why wait any longer? Classes start soon and space is limited," one Phoenix employee e-mailed him on April 1 5. "I'll be happy to walk you through the entire application process." ...
Rollins' experience is increasingly common. The boom in for-profit education, driven by a political consensus that all Americans need more than a high school diploma, has intensified efforts to recruit the homeless. Such disadvantaged students are desirable because they qualify for federal grants and loans, which are largely responsible for the prosperity of for profit colleges. Federal aid to students at for-profit colleges jumped from $4.6 billion in 2000 to $26.5 billion in 2009. Publicly traded higher education companies derive three-fourths of their revenue from federal funds, with Phoenix at 86%, up from just 48% in 2001 and approaching the 90% limit set by federal law. The privately held Drake College of Business, which trains people to be medical and dental assistants, relied on taxpayers for 87% of its revenue in 2007. Almost 5% of the student body at its Newark (New Jersey) branch is homeless, says Jean Aoun, director of admissions and student services there. Late in 2008 it began offering a $3 50 biweekly stipend to students who show up for 80% of classes and maintain a "C " average ... "It would put money in my pocket, help me buy a car," adds Jerome Nickens, 4 5, who lived at the mission when he talked to a Drake representative but decided not to enroll. ... While many caseworkers for the homeless are gratified by the attention, some see only exploitation. The companies "are preying upon people who are already vulnerable and can't make it through a university," says Sara Cohen, a case manager at Shelter Now in Meriden, Connecticut. "It's evil." ... Because they don't have to repay their educational loans until they leave school, some homeless students spend beyond their means. Kim Rose, a recovering crack cocaine addict and ex-offender in Raleigh, North Carolina, began pursuing an online bachelor's degree in business last November at Capella Education's Capella University, based in Minneapolis. At the time she was staying in a drugfree program with Internet access. Rose, 38, receives almost $4,000 each academic quarter in federal grants and loans for tuition and living expenses. She splurged last Christmas, spending $700 of her financial aid on presents for her seven-year-old son, who has lived with his grandmother. "I got him everything he wanted," Rose said in a telephone interview. "Games, toys. He's a guitar freak, I got him a guitar. To make up for me not being there." In February, Rose moved into a shelter where the only computer was broken. As a result, she has struggled to keep up, dropping an English composition course ....
In the end Benson Rollins didn't succumb to Phoenix's hard sell. He is taking a class for his high school equivalency degree and hopes to study law enforcement in college. For now, he would like a job so he can pay child support for his one-year-old daughter, whom he rarely sees. The Phoenix recruiters, he says, failed to mention a critical point: He would have to take out a government loan at 5% to 7% interest to pay the $10,000-plus annual tuition. "I'm in a homeless shelter, and money is hard to come by," Rollins says. "It's not worth going to school to end up in debt."